There is a campaign going on RIGHT NOW to bring the topic of lung cancer to the attention of Oprah Winfrey, in hopes the immensely popular talk show host will help bring awareness to the issue. The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation is sending a gigantic letter – 6 feet tall – to the Oprah Winfrey Show to catch the attention of producers and ask Oprah to dedicate a show to the topic of lung cancer.

“We all know that Donna Cronister is special, but let me tell you why she is my personal angel,” said Debra Frank, Radiology administrative associate for the 3D Lab and Drs. Sandy Napel and David Paik. “When I was mailing a card to Donna in thanks for her help on a project, I tripped near the mail boxes on Palm Drive, and I fell, injuring my knee and arm. I had to have stitches to close the cut on my knee as well as a chest X-ray for the pain in my arm.” Because her general practitioner thought he saw something suspicious on the chest X-ray, Debra was sent to Stanford for a CT scan in November of 2007. “If it wasn’t for our Stanford radiologists, I might not be as healthy as I am today. Almost from my first scan, they thought I could have lung cancer.”

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) – There is an update on San Francisco opera singer Zheng Cao in her battle with stage four lung cancer. The drug that was working to keep her alive, isn’t working as well. So, she’s now involved in a clinical trial. She allowed ABC7 to follow her journey, as a woman who never smoked, to raise awareness about the need for lung cancer research.

Cao is thrilled about the news she received from her oncologist, Dr. Heather Wakelee, at Stanford Medical Center. Cao’s blood tests came back in the almost normal range, after the first two weeks on a new anti-cancer drug called XL184 in a clinical trial.

Taylor Bell wasn’t your average college student. The small town girl from Wilmington, N.C., signed with East Carolina University to play Division I soccer, and majored in political science – all while finding time to make new friends.

At 21 years old, she also wasn’t your average lung cancer patient.

Lung cancer kills as many people as the four top cancers combined: breast, colon, pancreatic and prostate. It is unlike any other cancer because of the stigma it carries. When most people think of lung cancer, they think of smoking-and a cancer that “could have been prevented.”

But Bell has never smoked a cigarette in her life.

Bell’s fight with lung cancer began freshman year. Although she trained the same as her teammates, she couldn’t keep up physically, and she had tingling and numbness in her toes. Feeling confused and burned out, she made the difficult decision to leave the team.

“I was really tired, but thought it was just being in college and it was normal, you know, studying, class, friends. But something wasn’t adding up,” she said.